Making Forest and Landscape Restoration Happen: Policy Goals and Knowledge Gaps

Robin L. Chazdon, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, David Lamb, Lars Laestadius, Miguel Calmon, Chetan Kumar

Momentum is building for large-scale restoration all over the world

2 billion hectares worldwide

Planting trees is easy

Restoring landscapes is NOT easy

Forest landscape restoration (FLR): the long-term process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across

deforested or degraded forest landscapes

Large-scale (land-use mosaics, watersheds)

Forward-looking

Focus on restoring provision of ecosystem goods and services

Active engagement of local stakeholders

Suite of restoration approaches

Adapted to local context

Complements existing land uses

farmers

rural and traditional communities

urban community

coorporate landowners

forestry and agricultural agencies

national government

Policy goal:Reversing effects of

degradation through a widespread, long-

lasting process

How can we build capacity to inform, train,

promote, and monitor FLR through our

extension services?

How will FLR improve the provision of water and water

quality in our cities?

How can we pay for restoration and overcome the opportunity costs of restoring degraded land on our farms?

How can FLR provide jobs, promote local knowledge and culture, improve livelihoods,

and increase ecosystem services for us?

What institutional frameworks and

collaborative arrangements are needed to develop and

implement effective and long-lasting FLR policies?

How can FLR offset the environmental impact caused by my business

activities?

Knowledge comes from many sources and is disseminated in many ways

Thank you!

farmers and landowners

national government

Policy goal:Mobilize sufficient

financial resources to sustain the

implementation of FLR

How can landholders receive financial benefits from

restoration, including from payments from the generation

of ecosystem services?

How can funding from diverse bi-lateral and multi-lateral

development assistance sources be coordinated, distributed, and

managed to maximize overall benefits and cost effectiveness?

How can private enterprise

and financial institutions work

with local municipalities and

landowners to finance

restoration and generate new

revenues?

corporate landowners and financial institutions

farmers and landowners

national government

Policy goal:Develop appropriate interventions to suit

different types of ecological and economic

circumstances

What are the effects of different restoration interventions on the rates at

which ecosystem services recover and on

the tradeoffs and synergies among them,

at different spatial scales?

How do the spatial configuration

and extent of restored ecosystems

influence biodiversity and overall

provision of ecosystem services

within a landscape matrix?

Under what conditions is

natural regeneration a viable

restoration approach

compared to planting?

forestry and agricultural agencies

farmers and landownersnational government

Policy goal:Prioritize lands that are

most in need of restoration and where restoration will bring

greatest benefits

Where are the intersections between areas

where the need for ecosystem services is

greatest and where restoration could significantly increase the supply of these

ecosystem services?

What tools and local knowledge are

needed to configure landscapes that

combine ecosystem restoration,

productive land uses, food-water-

energy security, biodiversity

conservation, and poverty alleviation?

What definition of degradation

and which expected benefits could be used to identify and

map priority areas for

restoration?

forestry and agricultural agencies